# Achievements never finish in life :(

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achievements-never-finish-in-life/675240>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 1, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achievements-never-finish-in-life/675240 "2013-12-01T22:23:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![MaverocK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@MaverocK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaverocK)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achievements-never-finish-in-life/675240/1 "2013-12-01T22:23:18Z")

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Each new answer provokes additional questions.  
Each fresh discovery uncovers further complications.  
Every accomplishment leads to further problems.

It never stops. Achievements to accomplished never stop.

Primary school  
High school  
University  
then getting a joob. Getting good at it etc.

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**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achievements-never-finish-in-life/675240/2 "2013-12-01T23:12:15Z")

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Achievements like…making sense?

Are you saying it’s sad that a person is never able to rest on their laurels, since there’s always another hurdle to leap over?

If so, I don’t agree with this. I don’t agree that people are never able to rest on their laurels. The world is full of people who are coasting along in life, unconcerned with bettering themselves, setting goals, or planting flags. And they seem pretty content about their contentment.

I also don’t agree that constantly bettering yourself, setting goals, and planting flags is sad. It’s a good way to past time.

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**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achievements-never-finish-in-life/675240/3 "2013-12-01T23:15:16Z")

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No, the future is always ahead. You never get there. You have to learn to be happy with a lot of dreams and wishes still unfulfilled.

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**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achievements-never-finish-in-life/675240/4 "2013-12-01T23:30:34Z")

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> [@monstro](#):
>
> Achievements like…making sense?

It’s a copy/paste job. Same quote from several SAT sites.

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**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achievements-never-finish-in-life/675240/5 "2013-12-01T23:43:42Z")

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Ralph Waldo Emerson’s line "Life is a journey, not a destination” was no doubt the inspiration for this poem that is sometimes part of Jewish funeral services and a supplemental reading at Yom Kippur:

> [@](#):
>
> Birth is a beginning
> 
> And death a destination
> 
> But life is a journey,
> 
> A going — a growing
> 
> From stage to stage.
> 
> From childhood to maturity
> 
> And youth to age.
> 
> From innocence to awareness
> 
> And ignorance to knowing;
> 
> From foolishness to discretion
> 
> And then perhaps to wisdom.
> 
> From weakness to strength
> 
> Or strength to weakness —
> 
> And, often back again.
> 
> From health to sickness
> 
> And back we pray, to health again.
> 
> From offense to forgiveness,
> 
> From loneliness to love,
> 
> From joy to gratitude,
> 
> From pain to compassion,
> 
> And grief to understanding —
> 
> From fear to faith.
> 
> From defeat to defeat to defeat —
> 
> Until, looking backward or ahead,
> 
> We see that victory lies
> 
> Not at some high place along the way,
> 
> But in having made the journey,
> 
> stage by stage
> 
> A sacred pilgrimage.

So uh yeah.

Or to bastardize from another Jewish philosopher, Woody Allen, Life is a shark - when you stop moving forward you die. You don’t want new challenges then what you got is a dead shark.

(I can cut and paste too!)

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**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achievements-never-finish-in-life/675240/6 "2013-12-01T23:50:18Z")

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> [@MaverocK](#):
>
> then getting a joob.

It helps if you’re the walrus.

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**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2013, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/achievements-never-finish-in-life/675240/7 "2013-12-01T23:57:53Z")

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I’m betting the OP never finished the second one.